Safety razor



Jan. 16, 1945. J MURQS 2,367,517

SAFETY RAZOR Filed March 29, 1944 IN V EN TOR.

Patentecl Jan. 16, 1945 SAFETY RAZOR Joseph Muros, Cambridge, Mass,assignor to Gillette Safety Razor Company, Boston, Mass., a

corporation of Delaware Application March 29, 1944, Serial No. 528,526

3 Claims.

This invention relates to safety razors of the type in which a thinflexible blade is clamped for shaving between cooperating blade-flexinmembers. The invention consists in an improved razor of this type inwhich the end corners of the blade edge are shielded in such a mannerthat the user is safeguarded from the possibility of scratching orcutting any part of his face thereby.

In safety razors as heretofore constructed the user, in shaving areasadjacent to the nose or cars, has occasionally nicked or scratchedprojecting portions of his face upon the sharp corner edges of theblade. Various attempts have been made to remedy this defect in theorganization of the razor. For example, it has been proposed to build upa projecting lug in front of the blade corners and while this expedienthas been fairly satisfactory from the standpoint of safety, it hasproved objectionable in that it has masked off and rendered inoperativea substantial portion of the normal shaving edge of the razor blade, andit has also interfered with the desirable use of the shaving edge out toits corners. Moreover, safety lugs placed in this conspicuous manner areunsightly and impart an antique appearance to the razor inconsistentwith the streamlined designs now in popular favor. Lugs underlying oroverlying the corners of the blade have the same objection and also areobjectionable in that they tend to catch hairs between themselves andthe blade and pull.

I have discovered that the edge comers of the blade may be completelyand effectively safeguarded and all the objections of the earlyconstruction avoided by providing the guard member of the razor withlugs which are flush with the skin-engaging face of the guard member, orwith the line of the guard teeth, but which extend upwardly and inwardlyand are outside the blade edge corners, thus effectively preventing anyprojection in the contour of the face of the user from contacting theblade corners, while at the same time leaving the entire shaving edge ofthe blade fully exposed and available for the shaving operation.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood andappreciated from the following description of a preferred embodimentthereof selected for purposes of illustration and hown in theaccompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the razor as seen from above, on an enlargedscale;

Fig. 2 is a corresponding view in end elevation of the razor head;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view showing a corner of the razor head ona still larger scale; and

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view in end elevation in the-same enlargedscale.

The invention as herein shown is embodied in [3 of thin fiexible steel.004" to .007" in thickness.

The blade has a reentrant recess in each corner and these recessesdefine elongated unsharpened portions M at both ends of the blade. Theblade also ha an elongated medial slot IS with a central andintermediate enlargements shaped to fit the stem of the cap andblade-locating projections of various shapes in different safety razorsfor which the blade is adapted.

The cap I2 is slightly narrower than the blade and has a transverselyconcave blade-engaging face for flexing the blade in cooperation withthe guard member. It has also a pair of short bladelocating ribs l6which are herein shown as fitting the ends of the blade slot l5. Thecorners of the cap are provided with thickened reinforcing lugs l'l.

The guard member II is substantially wider than the cap l2, beinggenerally rectangular in outline and provided in its centre portion witha symmetrically disposed diamond-shaped depression [8, the walls ofwhich impart stiffness to the guard member as a Whole, while thedepression itself provides clearance for the blade-locating rib l6 ofthe cap. The guard member is shaped to present a pair of longitudinalfulcrum i shoulders IS. The material of the guard beyond or outside thefulcrum shoulders [9 extends downwardly and outwardly to form alongitudinal channel 20 at each side of the guard and beyond eachchannel is formed a guard, herein shown as a bar 2| partially set offfrom the body of the guard by elongated slots 22. The outer orskin-engaging face of the guard bar 2| has a smooth curvature outwardlyand downwardly and transverse scoring. When the razor is assembled forshaving, as suggested in Fig. 4, the blade i3 is deflected by the capover the fulcrum shoulder l9 so that its sharpened edge stands above andslightly to the rear of the guard bar 2| and over the channel 20. Theblade is normally adjusted to have an edge exposure of about .004", thatis to say, its edge extends that distance beyond a line drawn tangent tothe edge of the cap l2 and the curve of the guard bar 2|.

.All that has been described heretofore is old and well known in safetyrazors of the Gillette type. The essential features of the presentinvention consists in providing protective lugs such as those indicatedherein by reference character 23, in a position opposite to the endcorners of the-cutting edge of the blade but so located as not toobscure the cutting edge itself or in any way interfere with theapproach of the cutting edge to hairs in the forward movement of therazor. The manner of supporting these protective lugs 23 is of secondaryimportance so long as they are located as above described and do sultswill be secured by forming the guard member l l with project ng ears andthen swaging the material inwarldy to form the lugs 23. In thisoperation the outer skin-engaging curvature of the guard bar 21 isretained from end to end without interruption and the lugs are locatedopposite to the ends of the blade edge and spaced therefrom by more thanthe thickness of a hair so as to eliminate all danger of pulling. Thefull channel length of the razor is also retained and the shaving edgeof the blade i3 is unobstructed from corner to corner. The edge cornersof the blade, however, are eflectively guarded so, that they cannot byany movement of the. razor be brought into contact with the skin of theface and this is true even though the user may. back off the guardtosome extent to secure a greater edge exposure for close shaving.

Although guard bars 2! are shown in this illustrated razor it will beunderstood that the invention may be equally well embodied in razorshaving guard teeth at their edges instead of bars.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described an illustrativeembodiment thereof in detail, I claim as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent:

1. A safety razor comprising a guard member presenting an outwardlycurved skin-engaging guard surface, a flexible blade, a cap holding theedge of the blade above said guard surface, and lugs flush with theskin-engaging surface of the guard member and extending upwardy andrearwardly from the guard member to positions opposite to the end edgesof the blade and spaced therefrom by more than the thickness of a hair.

2. A, safety razor comprising a guard having a guard bar at itslongitudinal edge presenting an outwardly curved skin-engaging surfaceand a channel within said bar, a flexible blade, a cap shaped to holdthe edge of the blade in shaving position adjacent to the guard bar, andprotecting lugs flush with the skin-engaging face of the guard bar andextending upwardly and inwardly beyond the ends of the blade therebyshielding the end corners of the blade edge.

3. A safety razor comprising a guard member presenting a. curvedskin-engaging surface and a longitudinal fulcrum shoulder, a flexibleblade, and a transversely curved cap flexing the blade over. saidshoulder, the guard member having a

